Iron Sharpens Iron

Happy Thursday Cougs!!!

Spring ball is starting to wind down.  They had their first scrimmage this past weekend and if you missed Sean’s recap you can find it here.  The Cougs will play their second scrimmage this Saturday and have two more practices after that leading up to the Spring Game April 16th in Spokane, which by the way will be attended by the entire staff of wsufootballblog.com.  The rest of the spring schedule looks like this:

Thursday, April 7th: Practice – 3:45PM

Saturday, April 9th: Scrimmage #2 – 10AM

Tuesday, April 12th: Practice – 3:45PM

Thursday, April 14th: Practice – 3:45PM

Saturday, April 16th: Spring Game in Spokane – 3PM 

Ok, with all that out of the way, I want to talk for a moment about some of the chatter that arose in Cougar Nation following their first scrimmage…. 

If you didn’t hear, Jeff Tuel lit it up.  In fact he’s been doing so all spring.  He completed 13 of 19 passes for 112 yards, 1 TD and no picks.  For good measure, Marshall Lobbestael had a helluva scrimmage as well, completing 9 of 13 passes for 160 yards with 2 TD’s and 1 interception. 

Conventional wisdom suggests that the defense will be ahead of the offense in spring, as they try to find their rhythm and timing.  However, that has not been the case thus far, and that is starting to raise some serious concerns among Cougar fans.

It’s not like our pass defense was anything special in 2010.  In fact, it was far from it.  We ranked dead last in the PAC 10 in defensive pass efficiency while yielding 25 TD’s to only 11 picks.  That can be pretty nauseating to think about when you combine that with the train wreck that was our rushing defense (we don’t need to go there).

Nonetheless, we return a ton of experience and talent in our secondary as noted by Ted Miller from ESPN.com.  They were supposed to be a strength of ours heading into spring.  So what’s happening?  Why is our secondary getting torched this spring, and is it time to hit the panic button? 

My advice to you Cougs: I wouldn’t look too far into it.  Spring ball is a time of learning both for the players and the coaches.  Players work to fine-tune their technique and learn the playbook, while coaches learn about their personnel so they can adjust their schemes and address needs on the recruiting trail.  Obviously they want to push their players to compete so they have a better barometer but a little growing pains are to be expected, even from an experienced group.  

You can also point to the fact that the defense is missing their top two lineman in Travis Long and Brandon Rankin due to injuries.  However, that has opened the door for guys like Ian Knight and Xavier Cooper who bring some serious speed off the edge.  So I wouldn’t necessarily attribute the secondary’s struggles to a lack of pass rush, which was often the case in 2010.

Personally, I think the defensive struggles to this point can attributed to one thing: The offense is just THAT GOOD.  Jeff Tuel is coming into his own.  He has one of the deepest and most talented receiving corps in the PAC 10 to throw to.  Our offensive line, in it’s second year under Steve Morton, is making huge strides. Oh yea, and we have a running game finally.  They finally have the experience, talent, and cohesiveness as a unit to be effective all-around and now it’s putting the pressure on our defense to find their rhythm this spring.  

But instead of hitting the panic button, we should be rejoicing to the Crimson gods because of this! There is a Proverb (27:17 to be exact) that says, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”  The fact of the matter is that, for the first time in years our defense is facing a legitimate PAC 10 offensive unit every practice.  This will do nothing but help prepare our defense for the challenges that await them in 2011.  Competition breeds success, and hopefully with the offense stepping their game up, the defense will follow suit.

Realistically, these battles often go back and forth in the spring.  This article could become completely irrelevant on Saturday if the defense dominates the second scrimmage, and honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing that happen at all.  Either way, I can’t wait for the spring game, and I especially can’t wait for Cougar football in 2011! Go Cougs!